+++ Positives +++

• Its the same old adventuring romp
• Brendan Fraser still funny
• Delightful in-joke to the casting change of Rachel Weisz to Maria Bello for the part of Evie.
• Impressive CGI.
• Yeti's. Seriously.
• The backstory is inventive, with clever and creative use of chinese history eg The terracotta army is a key plot point

--- Negatives ---

• Some really under par acting by some of the cast. Luke Ford I'm looking at you in particular.
• Gaping plot holes all over the place. You honestly have to force yourself to ignore them.
• Totally unnecessary and pretty unused relationship between one of the supporting Villains, a Chinese general and one of his officers. What in the world was that about?
• No Rachel Weisz (she left due to "scripting problems - I can see why). Maria Bello just not good enough.
• Michelle Yeoh badly underused. Also appears to have aged not so well, but hopefully that was just make up.
• Some plot points make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Case in point - When Han bathes in the pool of life at Shangri-La he re-emerges as a THREE HEADED DRAGON.
• Too creative with Chinese history at some points.

Conclusion: The movie is pretty much what it says on the tin. Its a Mummy movie, set in China. If you really enjoyed the first 2, by all probability you will probably enjoy this one for the same reasons. Be warned however, it is definitely the weakest of the trilogy, perhaps on a par with the Scorpion King spin-offs.

Overall rating - 4 Terracotta soldiers out of 10.
Stay Classy,

Ian

I went to see Rick O connell and evy raise, and then do there best effort to kill another mummy. I liked the trailer, and I liked the shift of scene to China. Dissappointment is all I got! 200 rupees down the drain. Too many characters on screen, and nobody gets credit for anything. Some dude, who is Rick’s son unearth’s the mummy. That too in a very simple fashion with a few booby tricks thrown in for ‘effect’. You are in china, come up with some original tricks for gods sake. If Rick and eve are retired then why make a movie in the first place. Most of the action scenes are done by, oh wait, no not Rick, but his son. Again for what joy. I know the director cannot just ‘delete’ the fact that a son was introduced in the second movie, but I don’t see any problem why any of the scenes done by this son, could not have been done by Rick himself. Is Brendan Fraser getting too old to act in the next mummy movie? No wonder Rachel weiz did not want to act in garbage of a movie. There are so many characters in this movie. There is Rick, evy, his son, jonathan, some chinese babe, her mom. Not one of them have a single good scene. I don’t even want to mention the chinese mummy emperor because he is not even half as cool as the other mummies. Not worth watching. Just do not watch it. I say this with confidence, as the only other 5 individuals, who were sitting in the theatre with me, sure did not watch it.

My main computer that I use doesn't let me open up the catagory list.  So I'm on another computer that does let me do so.  So I'm going to try and use all the catagories in one list here to get them to be able to appear.

I got 2 albums a couple of weeks ago.  They were Warren Zevon albums: Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, and Sentimental Hygiene.  By the way, if you haven't been able to tell yet, I'm a huge Warren Zevon fan.

Speaking of Warren Zevon, I've been reading his biography, the one by his ex-wife.  I'm a slow reader...but I enjoy it.

Between late December of last year and early June of this year, I was writing a story called Matthew of the IHOP Restroom.  This guy goes to IHOP at 3:30am and goes to the restroom but in stead of going into the restroom, he enters a poratl to the 18th Demension.  The general idea was in response to having read the book STARDUST after having seen the movie about 3 or 4 times.  Anyway, I've started writing a spin-off called Dan of a Bank on Metcalf.  Dan was a friend of Matthew who happens to be a loveable idiot...but he's kind of a pervert when he's drunk.  If you are interested in reading any of these stories, you can visit my myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/classic_rockaholic

Bruce Springsteen is still coming to town and I still don't have tickets.  But whatever.  The day before, which is this coming Saturday, I will be performing in my first live improv show.  The place is called The Roving Imp.  It's in Bonner Springs.  I will be performing a Chicago style Harold with a group of fellow improvers.  I've been taking the workshops there at the Roving Imp for about a month now and having the time of my life!

I finally got the licence plate for my Chevy Aveo this last Tuesday.  Good thing to.  The 30-day experation tag was up on Wednesday.  But I got the letter in the mail this week that I have to pay car tax...on my old car that I had to get rid of because of the hail storm.  Now I have to let the state know that I now own the Chevy Aveo.  But also this week, I'll be going back up to KU for my last full year of classes.  I will be a graduate of the Unversity of Kansas (hopefully) by May '09...To give you some idea, I've been going to college since Aug. '02.  I'm ready to be out.

I found out a week ago that I have an older 1/2 sister.  I mean, I knew that I had 2 older half sisters but it was one of those things that I stuck in the back of my mind.  I'm an only child and I've been an only child for 25 years and almost 2 months.  Now, not just do I have sisters, but I've also been an uncle for the past 17 years.

I saw Mummy 3 this last Monday and really enjoied it.  I want to go see Tropic Thunder.  I made a comment in my workshop that I already know that Jack Black's charicter would be the most like me.  They suggested I should see the movie first to make sure the charicter who is most like me ISN'T a rapist.  So, hopefully, he's not.  I just assumed because I see a lot of myself in a lot of other Jack Black charicters.  But anyway...

Yeah, so this is an update.  I'm sorry if anyone comes along and reads this and thinks I tried to type the most I've ever typed for the sole purpose of having more people come to my site.  That is not my intention at all.  I just wanted to make sure I could use all my catagories in one post.

The next weekend released one of the better movies of July: “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army.” What shocked me were the differing opinions between the critics and the audience on the weekends. The critics hated “Hancock,” but loved “Hellboy 2”; conversely, the public went and saw “Hancock” and didn’t turn out for “Hellboy 2” like I had expected. Another release for that weekend was Brendan Fraser in “Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D,” which I was told you really DID need 3-D glasses for.

Eddie Murphy’s comedy “Meet Dave” opened at $5.2 million.

“Mamma Mia!” had an impressive opening as it could have hoped: $27,751,240. Why? Because of its competition: “The Dark Knight.” “TDK” kicked “Iron Man” and “Indy 4”’s opening weekends, raking in $158 million. It has since set box office records the least of which was biggest weekend box office opening. Whether it was the fact that it was a sequel to “Batman Begins,” or Heath Ledger’s last movie, or simply people who enjoy the work of Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight” has held the number one spot at the box office for the last month.

Believe it or not, I really DID want to believe, but the new “X-Files” movie let me down. With an opening of $10 million for the weekend, it was beaten out by the Will Ferrell/ John C. Reilly comedy “Step Brothers.” Whether it was the plot of “X-Files,” the fact that it’s been years since the series has been on the air, or maybe there are that many more fans for Ferrell and company as opposed to “The X-Files.”

We got a third “Mummy” movie, which was a slight disappointment at the B.O., only taking in $40 million. Its competition, “Swing Vote,” had one of the lowest openings for the summer as well. Was it the reviews of “Mummy 3” that kept people away, or are we already done with the franchise?

Batman continued his grip on the number one spot and if any movie could thwart him, it was “Pineapple Express.” However, Judd Apatow and company couldn’t pull that off, but did take in $23 mil for the weekend. Their competition, “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” brought in $10 mil.

Will anything break Batman’s stranglehold on the number one spot? This week we have the premiere of “Tropic Thunder.” If “Pineapple Express” couldn’t do it, this is the last chance.

Here are the rundown of the numbers for the summer:

Biggest Openings of the Summer:

“The Dark Knight”                    $158,411,483

“Indy 4”                                   $126,917,373

“Iron Man”                               $102,118,668

“Wall*E”                                  $63,087,526

“Hancock”                               $62,603,879

“”Kung Fu Panda”                    $60,239,130

“Sex and the City”                    $56,848,056

“The Incredible Hulk”               $55,414,050

“Narnia: Prince Caspian”          $55,034,805

“Wanted”                                 $50,927,085

And the Top Ten Cumulative for the Summer:

“The Dark Knight”                    $448,886,084

“Iron Man”                               $316,590,841

“Indy 4”                                   $314,819,219

“Hancock”                               $222,625,918

“Kung Fu Panda”                     $211,507,723

“Wall*E”                                  $211,332,152

“Sex and the City”                    $151,838,609

“Narnia: Prince Caspian”          $140,117,978

“The Incredible Hulk”               $133,932,430

“Wanted”                                 $132,802,780

Trailerul la cea de-a 3-a parte a seriei Mumia il gasiti aici:

Surse:

www.cinemagia.ro

www.youtube.com

Brendan Fraser, never stop.  (Did they Photoshop the gun out of his hand in this picture?)     

This summer has given us some very nice movies, with Iron Man, WALL-E, and The Dark Knight to name a few. The Mummy 3 is the latest big-budget summer blockbuster, but it unfortunately doesn't meet the lofty standard set by the above movies.

It seems like it should be a hit, with romance, suspense, a few well-known actors, and an overdose of CGI action, but in the end the whole thing just turned out to be a meh experience. The story lacks any sort of heart, so you can never be engrossed by it at all, and the humor is so forced that it loses all charm. None of the acting is noteworthy and the characters are forgettable. The action is fine, and it's probably the best part of The Mummy 3, but a movie needs more than a handful of cool explosions to sustain itself.

I never saw the first two Mummy films, but this one had a plot that could stand on its own without the viewer needing any prior knowledge of the series. Rick O'Connell and his wife Evelyn have retired from being adventurers, but when they are asked to transport a giant stone called the Eye of Shangri-La as a kind gesture from Britain to China, they gladly oblige. However, the Eye is eventually stolen and used to resurrect the evil Dragon Emperor, who was long ago frozen along with his army as terra cotta statues. It's up to our protagonists to stop the Emperor and his army from becoming immortal and taking over the world.

Now there are a lot more details I could go into, but I don't feel the need to. The bottom line is that you shouldn't see this unless you've seen all of the other excellent movies that came out this summer, because The Mummy 3 sits near the bottom of the pile.

Pros: Nifty set design, Jet Li, plenty of CGI action

Cons: Almost too much CGI action, uninspired plot, bad attempts at humor, overall forgettable

Final Score: 5.5 out of 10

The Mummy 3 was good, I quite enjoyed it but I missed Rachel Weisz playing 'Evie'. AM didn't go and I think this worked in our favour. After a few days of arguing, the little break did us good as we've been argument-free since. The space probably enabled us to free up our mind and dissolve any bad feeling.  I guess it's good once in a while. Oh, the events of being in love.

Speaking of which, we're loving the Olympics at the moment. Now before getting into this, I'd just like to say I'm discussing this in a love-for-the-sport kind of way, as I don't want to get into politics and the current affairs regarding the Chinese government.

The gymnastics has been fun, which is mainly what we've been watching. It amazes me how small in stature all the girls are. They look so young and short; doing somersaults must lead the path of the fountain of youth or something. AM informs me that they often don't get their periods til about age 19, which is obviously quite late and I thought this was odd...does sport often do this to women?  The swimming events have also been good to watch, just looking at the pool makes me want to start swimming again.

Last night we went to JB's in Dudley with a few family and friends. We saw a Bon Jovi tribute band, it was okay but not the best. The night was alright though. One of our group confessed their bisexuality to me, but I think I only attracted such a confession because I'm gay myself.  Our next trip to JB's will be on the 30th, as AM wants to see her fave Guns N Roses tribute, they put on a great show.

Tomorrow Shadow has a check-up at the vet, then we're going grocery shopping. Yes its that time of week again. I've decided I'm going to cook spagetti bolognese this week. If you're wondering, Mother does most of the cooking but when I do it I have always decided in advance as I usually cook from fresh. I think I'll also be putting on a chicken roast at some point.

I'm feeling fed up of the computer, so probably time to log off and sleep.

*NO FUNNY QUIPS IN THIS ONE, THIS MOVIE DOESN'T REALLY DESERVE THE EFFORT OR TIME

Well I think my stance is a given by the headline. First off I will say the movies not entirely horrible, I just don't think I'd watch it over the 1st or even the 2nd Mummy movies...I would watch it before I watch THE SCORPIAN KING or the SCORPIAN KING 2(yes they did make a 2nd). This movie has the unfortunate distinction of coming out after INDIANA JONES 4. Now everyone hated (included myself a bit) the fridge and monkey scenes in INDY 4, but Mummy 3 has Yeti's. The Mummy is know for being silly, and I'm fine with that...but this movie has a lot of problems. I'll go with the most obvious one...BRENDAN FRASER looks a little older, but the guy DOES NOT look like he should have a kid who's about 20 or so. I know it's not the movies fault that FRASER hasn't aged much since the last one, but all that needed to happen was make the kid younger. Also you can see every bit of action coming from a mile away, it was like the script was on Action Adventure autopilot. While watching the movie I got bored so I started calling out the bits of action that were going to come next to my dad(the man who got me into movies in the first place) and lo and behold every bit of action I knew was coming...came. I didn't hate the movie, but it's not good...at all. My dad found it barely interesting and he's the kind of person movies like this are seemingly made for. Now I'm not hating on The Mummy 3 for no reason, I actually really enjoyed THE MUMMY and THE MUMMY RETURNS because they reminded me of action movies from back in the day. With action adventures being what made me and fan of film, I have to say I was disappointed in this movie...a movie that I couldn't and probably shouldn't have been made.

CHARLES' GRADE-D

PROS:not many, Fraser is still(to me) a decent action hero, and at least JET LI's statuesque personality works...if Jet Li plays a undead mummy in everything maybe I'd enjoy his work

CONS: bland action scenes, generic story, uninteresting all around

Went to watch Mummy 3(Rise of the Dragon Emperor) and Money Not Enough 2 over the past weekend. Well, as usual, sequal of successful box office movies wouldn't be disappointing. Both are of different genre, of course, Mummy 3 would be full of actions while director Jack Neo really produce good local movies yet it is not as funny as compared to his past productions.

The story of Mummy 3 begins when the son of the mummy slayer discovers the tomb of the Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Wang. This time round there are no mummies wrapped in toilet paper, the mummies are the chinese clay soldiers buried together with the emperor. One disappointing fact that made me not enjoy the show was the computer animation. These ang mohs don't understand, dragons never have 3 heads. Oh yeah, but the snow beasts are cute, just like a big furball. I wish I can keep 1 as my pet.

One plus point, the actors in this movie are well choosen, throughout the mummy series. Brendan Fraser left a very deep impression in my mind when he acts in George of the Jungle. I always remember him as the handsome tarzan guy. Ha! The brother in law of Rick, Jonathan, keeps the show alive, he's as funny as ever. The Chinese actor and actress (Michelle Yeoh, Jet Li, Isabella Leong and Anthony Wong), were superb in the show, their acting skills are no lower as compared to these hollywood stars. Isabella have such perfect skin and features, I'm sure she would make her name big in hollywood.

I heard from my mum, those clay soldiers that was buried with the emperor are rumored to be made of real human body, covered with clay.

Pictures from flickr.com, by divxplanet.

I'm now into watching the drama Couple or Trouble, every weekdays on Channel U 10pm.

Shall review it after I watched. Till then. Let me finish my work at OSSEA.

But there is a limit. It's a limit born from the knowledge that you're already asking an audience to believe that the bodies of the ancient dead can be brought back to life several millennia later, at which point they will nonetheless manage to walk on two legs and hold an intelligible conversation with someone from the present. With this level of indulgence, the least you can do is to make sure the rest of it makes sense, up to a point anyway.

This is a limit that the previous movies in the Mummy franchise understood and abided by, more or less. With this latest instalment, the filmmakers must have thought: "What the hell. Let's add yetis. Why not?"

The film has many of the problems associated with sequels, although it's got a fair share of new ones. As with The Dark Knight, there are numerous minor characters who seem to be there simply because they were in the previous films. (John Hannah, who plays the brother-in-law, may as well have Terence Malicked himself out of the film from the off, as his "comic relief" is less "plucky" than "sucky".) Then there are the logical inconsistencies that inevitably crop up due to casting problems: For one thing, there's the implausibility of having Brendan Fraser, looking not a day older than 38, playing the father of ... a 27 year old? Then there's the transmogrification of Mrs. O'Connell, AKA Maria Bello, who takes over wifely duties from Rachel Weisz – but this is less annoying than expected, because at least Mrs. Aronofsky didn't sully her good name by appearing in this dreck.

The story does share some continuity with the previous films. Again the bad guy is a powerful mummy who's got unfinished business with a long-lost love. Again, there is the henchman of dubious morals and even more dubious intelligence who assists the bad guy in his plot (although in this case he helps to raise him, rather than simply taking advantage of the self-raising undead). And again the whole thing is an excuse to relive the thrills of 30s serials and boys' adventure stories and Indiana Jones capers – perhaps not the wisest move in the same year Spielberg & Co. finally release that franchise's long-awaited sequel, even if said sequel did get royally Lucased up. (For the original meaning of 'to get Lucased up', see Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.) The main difference is that this time, it feels like an excuse for a film, and a flimsy one, at that.

Please note: I am not complaining about the action scenes or the CGI or the obvious set-pieces, although I have issues with all of those. (Some of the CGI is just terrible, and I'll get to the action scenes in a bit.) I had a much bigger problem with the film, which was that it may as well have been called Cool Ideas We Didn't Think Through. As Tanya, a friend of mine who saw the film with me, put it: it's like the film was written by a 10 year old: "And then there was a mummy anna bunch of zombies anna spaceship annanalien anna yeti annanother yeti anna..."

So for example you have a scene where the pilot, Mad Dog, transports a yak all the way to the top of the Himalayas, and then ... lets it go. What? And there are the scenes at the beginning, after the prologue, where we're still waiting for them to "GET ON WITH IT!" (as per Monty Python and The Holy Grail). Watching a few dreary scenes meant to illustrate exactly how bored the former adventurers are in their early retirement, I recalled something a friend of mine once said about storytelling: just because your characters are bored doesn't mean your audience should be. Again, there were simply too many scenes in the film where I was left wondering: Why are we watching this? Why does the person who's lived for 2,000 years behave exactly like somebody who's lived for 25? Surely living for that amount of time must do something to your brain.

At least in the first movie, the people put some thought into things, and the silliness made some sort of sense. There were lots of set pieces that worked just fine. For instance, the scene where Our Very Own Arnie (Vosloo)™ first uses his power to control sand, specifically to transform an enormous dune into an even larger sand-wave which engulfs our heroes. I loved the bit where the Mummy's henchman, in a nod to the audience and CGI crew alike, says, "I loved the whole sand wall trick, it was beautiful."

In the new film, by contrast, we must tolerate a prolonged battle between two zombie armies, both of which have to be spannered in through a plot wormhole so our two main characters can waste fifteen crucial minutes firing guns into a mob. What gives? A more astute filmmaker would realize that characters get lost in large battle scenes, which is not something you can afford – especially since they're the central characters from the original film. (It's like making a sequel to Jaws, but without the shark.) Worse, there is no reason for this scene to exist. After all, the bad guy has control over all the elements, right? So they're fighting on a sandy plain, which has ... sand? Why isn't he using the sand against the opposing army? Idiot. How'd he become emperor? Guy couldn't win a game of Tic-Tac-Toe, nevermind a full-scale war.

It was during the scene where the two ancients are calling their armies to battle that I thought to myself: "You know, for someone who's 2,000 years old, she sure does have nice teeth – especially if you consider that when she was born, dentistry wasn't so much a science as an abstract art." It's distracting, is what it is. Or more accurately, it's a sign that your attention isn't on the movie, and that is a bad thing. You shouldn't have time to think about this kind of stuff during an adventure yarn, because if you do, you're obviously bored – and that's simply unforgivable in a genre that's supposedly predicated on fun. It's a waste of a silly but serviceable conceit, not to mention a fairly appropriate cast.

This is a pity, because Brendan Fraser is generally a likeable actor. Even though he's descended into a plane of existence where the inhabitants are forced to constantly release bad remakes of Who Fried Roger Rarebit?, he's been in many enjoyable movies. So perhaps, if he's lucky, he'll soon graduate from the slew of kiddies' pictures he currently finds himself mired in. And yes, I wish Mr. Fraser the very best of luck. So let's all hope they don't decide to make The Mummy 4: Monarch of the Moon-Sea.

For more cool pics from the silly film, visit the director's site.

What can I say about the Mummy franchise that already hasn't been said? It's totally awesome. A mix of comedy and action. No unnecessary darkness (unlike a lot of movies these days). These films hearken back to the old days when it was *GASP* fun to watch movies. That being said, the third instalment doesn't measure up to its predecessors.

Plot: The film begins with a narration about the rise to power of Emperor Han, the Dragon Emperor. He conquered all his enemies, many of whom were buried under the Great Wall of China, and mastered the five elements, but could not conquer death. To that end, he sought the help of Zi Yuan, who knew where to find the secret of immortality. Jin declares to his first in command, General Ming, that no man is to touch her; however, the two fell in love during their search. After Zi Yuan supposedly casts the immortality spell on Jin, he ushers Zi Yuan to the balcony to watch as General Ming is pulled apart by horses. He then stabs Zi Yuan. She reveals that she has in fact cursed the Emperor and his army, turning them into Terra cotta statues, and manages to escape.

The film jumps ahead to 1946. Explorer Rick O'Connell, his wife Evelyn, and brother-in-law Jonathan are now retired. Their son Alex has dropped out of school and become an adventurer like his parents. With the financial backing of Roger Wilson, Alex locates the Dragon Emperor's tomb. Though he is attacked by a mysterious woman, he avoids harm and successfully brings the Emperor back to Shanghai. In the meantime, the British government entrusts the elder O'Connells to take the Eye of Shangri-La back to China as a good faith gesture from the British to the Chinese. All the O'Connells arrive at Imhotep, a night club in Shanghai owned by Jonathan. Alex gives his parents a tour of the exhibit, where it is revealed that Roger Wilson is in league with a paramilitary group led by General Yang and his second in command Choi. Using the Eye of Shangri-La, which contains water from Shangri-La, they are able to resurrect the Emperor. The mysterious woman from the excavation site tries to kill the Emperor with a dagger cursed by Zi Yuan, but he manages to escape.

The mysterious woman reveals herself to be Lin, a protector of the Dragon Emperor's tomb. She explains that the path to Shangri-La can be revealed using the Eye. The O'Connells, Jonathan, and Lin trek through the Himalayas with the help of Rick's pilot friend Mad Dog Maguire and reach the tower that will reveal the path to Shangri-La when the Eye is placed on top of it. General Yang, his soldiers, and the Emperor arrive shortly after. Lin summons a trio of yeti to assist in the battle, but the Emperor ultimately succeeds in placing the Eye atop the golden tower. Rick is stabbed by the Dragon Emperor's sword while protecting Alex. Alex triggers an avalanche, which buys them time to reach Shangri-La first.

They reach Shangri-La first and Rick is healed by ZiYuan, who was rescued by the yeti after cursing the Emperor. She is revealed to be Lin's mother, General Ming having fathered her shortly before his death. Using the water, they have become immortal and have guarded the secrets of the Emperor for over 2,000 years. The Emperor arrives and is able to bathe in the pool, restoring his physical form and giving him shape-shifting abilities. He takes the form of a three-headed dragon, kidnaps Lin, and flies to his Terra cotta Army at the excavation site.

The Emperor summons his army, which will become invincible should it cross the Great Wall. To buy time, Zi Yuan sacrifices her immortality and that of her daughter to revive those buried beneath the Great Wall. Led by General Ming, the undead army and the Terra Cotta army fight. A massive battle ensues, during which Zi Yuan and the Emperor fight one-on-one. Zi Yuan sacrifices herself to steal back the cursed dagger. Alex saves Lin and they find Zi Yuan dying soon after. She gives Lin the dagger and tells her to stab the Emperor through the heart.  Alex and Rick head off to face the Emperor who has them outmatched. It takes a strategy of "divide and conquer" in order to finally bring him down, but do they do it? You'll have to see the movie to find out.

Review: The opening scenes are some of the best of the entire movie. However, when Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh signed on for this playing China's emperor and his love (roles they have played in a previous film), you have to wonder what that script said (or how much money they were shown) that made them sign on to this. The fight scenes are vintage Mummy...visual spectacles that are short of breathtaking. Of course a giant Terra cotta army vs an army of skeletons will do that.

Jet Li is seriously underused here as the emperor, but considering how Imhotep was used, I can't say I'm surprised. In all honesty, now that I think about, he has more lines than Imhotep had. The Emperor is also more powerful than the Imhotep. As Rick says, this one has superpowers. He can morph into anything, has the powers of the elements, and has bad attitude. Not exactly a guy you want to cross, you know?

Brendan Fraser is great as always. He is the glue that holds this thing together. John Hannah returns and brings some levity and comic relief in, and keeps this thing from getting too serious. The actor that plays Alex obviously spent some time with him, and this being his first major role, its hard to tell if his shortcomings are the result of the bad script or his skills as an actor.

My biggest qualm, though, is with the actress who tries to replace Rachel Weisz. This woman may be a fine actress in her own right, and I may be a bit prejudiced in my opinion, but she just doesn't stack up. She's a sad, sad, replacement. It feels like she was just forced in there.

The script, as I mentioned earlier is the biggest flaw of this whole thing. It just seems like they wrote it on a bus somewhere, took it to the studio, got a green light for it, and hoped that the popularity of the franchise would take care of the rest. That being said, it didn't totally suck, just needed some tinkering.

The Yeti were awesome, just wish they were in there a bit more, but CGI costs money. Let's see....did I forget anything...oh...my rating.

As far as Mummy films go, this could have been a lot better. The script is the biggest downfall, along with the waste of Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, and the sup par recasting of Evy. Having said  that, I did enjoy it. Would I pay to go see it again in the theater, no. Would I rent it when it comes out on DVD, yes.

It was good, but could have been better.

3 out of 5 stars.

 Действительно, это был один из самых ожидаемых мною фильмов августа. Первые две части были почти сносными, а точнее - интересными, и рекламная кампания 3ей части была сделана грамотно(особенно остро я это почуствововал когда засыпал в кинотеатре).

Начнем с того что понравилось: спецэффекты. Конечно - это единственное на что можно было посмотреть.

Что не понравилось: сюжет, сценарий.

Все началось с того, что я вполне спонтанно пошел на премьеру. Перед самим фильмом пустили 20-минутную рекламу, в которй даже показали трэйлер к фильму "Хранители" который выйдет в 2009 году!!! (Это только мне показалось издевательством?)

Сюжет описывать детально не хочу, скажу только что речь пойдет о мумии китайского императора, который завоевал всю страну, построил великую китайскую стену как символ своего величия. (Следует заметить что Википедия, а с ней и такая наука как история, имеет совсем другие сведения по поводу причин строительства этой стены)

Захватив весь Китай он понял что еще много всего нужно сделать и что в одну жизнь никак не уложиться. Вот и пошел он к волшебнице которая подсказала ему где искать секрет бесмертия(коим она сама, к слову, не владела).  Император почуствовал чот эта девушка может стать Императрицей Китая, однако в самый ответственный момент она выбрала его друга, за что и получила кинжалом в живот.

Император узнал что она также обманула его, не подарив вечной жизни, а наоборот - прокляв его.  Одним словом - Санта-Барбара и это в первые 15 минут фильма. Лучшие традиции жанра продолжает тот факт, что волшебница получив кинжалом в живот села на коня(или на что она там села) и добежала до Гималаев(коих авторы на горизонте не показывали, да и сам факт верховной езды с разрезанным чревом удивляет), где ее спасли Йетти, отведя к источнику вечной жизни. Ну и даже если учесть что она у нас была такой выносливой, что выжила то уж ее ребенок(находящйся на тот момент в ее утробе) уж точно должен был умереть(после такого-то ранения!).

Смыслового наполнения фильма - нет. Практически все диалоги основываются на выяснении семейных проблем главных героев(что ведь не является центральной сюжетной линией фильма, или я что-то упустил?)

Местами слушать эти разборки становится противно. Юмор у авторов не всегда удавался. Мне лично вспомнилась коронная сцена из последнего спайдермена где она сказала ему что они не могут быть вместе и они вдвоем стояли, смотрели друг на друга и плакали.

Имеет ли смысл продолжать разбор полетов? Нет. Фильм не имеет запоминающихся частей которые можно было бы вспомнить и обсудить, однако я не исключаю что некоторой категории зрителей он безумно понравится.

Зная по себе, даже прочитав бы такой негативный отклик я бы все равно пошел бы посмотреть фильм, в надежде что он будет хорошим. Мое мнение такое, что это можно смотреть только при наличии кучи свободноо времени и отсутствии других дисков с фильмами.

Оценка - 1.5/5

I think this movie has too many elements in it. Terra cotta army of Qin Shi Huang, Yetis in the snowy mountains of Himalayas and the "good guys" mummies of the buried dead under the Great Wall. This is so getting messy. I still prefer the first two installments of the Mummy franchise because they had a mystical feel whereas the third movie is lacking in this.

The use of "Mummy" is wrong because the main baddies were not mummified, more of being "terra-cottarised" because you're supposed to preserve the flesh and skin of mummies, not make them into clay statues... Ok, although you can say the dead bodies that are re-animated at the end can be considered mummies, I will think they are more suitable to be called undead instead of mummies because they have been buried 2000 years ago and anything buried for that long will be decomposed, not mummified under normal circumstances.

Factual truths aside, the movie is enjoyable. I'll give it 3/5 stars. Somehow I feel this is yet another movies banking on the China Olympics. To use chinese-related stuff to sell the movie.

Rick O'Connel and his family fight to stop the cruel Emperor Han of the Qin Dynasty who can transmogrify. He is raised back with the help of Eye of Shangrila and he tries to make himself and his army immortal. The Emperor should be stopped before he crosses the Great Wall.

Brendan Fraser plays the role of Rick O'Connell while John Hannah continue to be Jonathan. Maria Bello performs as Evelyn, Luke as Alex, Jet Li as The Dragon Emperor Han. Michelle Yeoh, the crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon star, plays a key role.

The picturization is good in this movie. The back drop and the sets do justice to a story set at Shanghai in 1947.  The screenplay is good and fast. The action scenes are picturised nicely and the background score is good.  The graphics was not too great but it was good enough not to cause any distraction. The scene where the two armies ram through each other and the shape-shifted emperor runs through the opponents has been done nicely.  Scenes involving Yeti are also good. The dialogues as a whole was ok; those of Jonathan were good and rib tickling.

"You people are Mummy-magnets"
"I hate Mummies. They do not play fair"

After an enthralling "The Mummy" and a gripping "The Mummy Returns" the latest part is not so heady. The plot seems to be too ordinary and one can guess easily what is going to come up in the next scene. The chemistry between Brendan and Maria is a little lower than that of Brendan and Rachel in the first two parts. It was not so effective. The role of the villain lacks weight. Jet Li comes with a over-did make-up for majority of the movie and he hardly shows his martial art skills. The climax where O'Connells fight Emperor Han could have been prolonged a little bit. The camera was also too close for this scene most of the time that one could not see the grandeur with which Jet Li fights. The things that you see are his legs/hands. The same is the case where Jet Li takes on Michelle Yeoh.

The movie is not so exciting as the previous two parts but it could be watched once. Watching in theater might be better as it can be easily boring to watch it on a DVD. It does not equal the first two parts definitely. The movie ends with an hint that a sequel to this movie set in Peru is most likely.

What am I playing?

-Nothing at the moment, just some NES emulators. I was trying to play Wizards and Warriors, but I have no idea what I am supposed to do. That was a big problem with old games. They would just start and not tell you what you were supposed to do. Oh well, I guess I could read a walkthrough or something.

What shows am I watching?

-Being back in the good ol" States, I am re-immersing myself into the 61 channels that lie within our television. Caught an episode of NUMB3RS, but other than that, not watching much.

What movies am I watching?

-"Semi-Pro" Typical Will Farrel movie. Goofy comedy that me laughing till it hurt my sides. :)
- "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." I have to say I enjoyed it, but was irked by a couple things. They say people like continuity and uniformity, and in this case it is true. It was a Mummy movie, I guess, but it wasn't in Egypt, didn't have Rachel Weisz, and wasn't directed by Steven Sommers. Hmmm. . .yea. . .And since it wasn't in Egypt, it took place in China. Therefore the movie was full of stock Chinese thingies and even the actors. Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. . .aren't there any other actors that can play Chinese people? Seriously. And raising the Terracota Army? Pssh. . .I already used that in my (possibly soon available) graphic novel "The Adventures of John Nash and his Crew." Yea, it was a huge plug, but whatever. haha. Technically, the movie was alright. The CG was good but the editing and some of the music was a little. . .ugh. . i don't know. So, the new Mummy movie was cool and entertaining, but nothing amazingly awesome. Can't wait for the inevitable fourth movie, that will probably lead our heroes to the jungles of Peru.

What music am I listening to?
-Missing Germany and the language spoken there, I have just been listening to German music. Rammstein, Wir Sind Helden, die Prinzen, Sido. . .check out these bands, and featured song of the week is Sido's "Halt dein Maul."

What books am I reading?

-Still reading the blog-to-book "Anleitung zum Entlieben"
-Picked up a copy of "Eric" by Terry Pratchett and read some of it. I had to say I was hella confused. Since I was ridiculously tired and jetlaged, I figure I will start it over.
-Going through the old books I had at home.

What else am I doing?
-Just re-introducing myself to the Nor-Cal life. Mexican food, things open on Sunday, etc rtc. . .
-Missing Germany

Well Mummy 3 is here in town... Lucky I got a free pair of tickets for the movie, or else it would not be worthwhile paying for the movie... ok lah... the movie is not that bad... it's just me being critical... Story nothing new... plain rubbish about the history of Emperor Qin to a certain extend. Effects good loh.. no doubt with the iconic sand eroding effect from the pass 2 Mummy... The only plus point I can say is the special creature and action packed scene that entertains me... the rest... well story and effects... ok lah... If you are going for a action pack, "effecty" movie... yes give it a go... but don't set your expectation too high... Brendan Fraser abit sian of his centre parking Macdonald hair style already... can ask him to change hos hairstyle? Jet Li... well he looks weird in CG haha just like The Rock in the previous Mummy as Scorpion King... Maybe we can have a movie soley for the Emperor Qin, then we can have more of Jet Li... :)

My verdict 3/5 stars... or maybe a 2.5... :)

At around 7pm, I left the house to fetch BF. He came over the past 2 weekends so I volunteered that we spend the evening on his side of the metro (he lives in Pasig). We went to Metrowalk and had dinner at Behrouz. We ordered 2 small shawarmas and 1 meal with beef tenderloin, beef kebab, grilled tomatoes & rice. The waitress said that it was already good for 2, she must have underestimated us because the order was bitin. Good thing we ordered shawarma. My other bestfriend, A, told us way before that if we ever got a chance to eat at Behrouz that we try the Ox Brain - BF and I discussed this and I wasn't up to try anything extreme (?). :P We decided to watch a movie so I checked the movie schedule of Robinson's Galleria. This was at around 9 and when I got the schedule we decided to watch the 9:30pm screening of Mummy 3. The movie was just right - it had the curses, the mummies (of course), adventure & action - but something was off. They replaced Rachel Weisz' character (Evie) with Maria Bello. :( Bello's okay but after watching Weisz in the past 2 mummy movies it's hard to look at Evie now with a different face. Instead of just watching the movie and absorbing the story, every time Evie comes in the picture I can't help but try to imagine Weisz playing the character. Oh well, it's over & done with anyway. After the movie, I had to go to the washroom but BF & I opted to not use the ones in the movie house since it will be crowded, well for the Ladies anyway. We went to the washroom near Toys R' Us; BF was walking a bit ahead of me so I wasn't looking at the sign on the doors anymore, I was just going to go to the other door. Then BF was about to enter when he stopped and went to the other door then I looked up and called him right away because he went inside the Ladies' washroom! Apparently, there was a gay guy (with short hair) washing his hands on the sink nearest the door so when BF saw him/her he assumed that it was the Ladies room when, in fact, it wasn't. Haha, laughtrip! :) Good thing, the ladies room was empty. ;) We headed back to Metrowalk after the movie and just bonded over a bucket of beer and pulutan (Chicken Pork Adobo flakes & Lumpiang Ubod). That pretty much sums up what happened to me/us today. :) Tomorrow's another bum day and I think we're going videoke, hehe. :)

I'm now going back to my book and read about Edward. ;)

First things first. The Mummy in The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is not a Mummy at all! I hate to spoil the fun but an evil dude solidified into an earthen mould by a sorceress' curse is not a Mummy. But of course, the franchise is all about Mummies and digression was a no-no so the makers decided to go for the same old buried-centuries-ago-will-wreak-havoc-when-resurrected saga, this time set in China (maybe there just so that they can add some Kung-fu stuff methinks). The story/plot can be read here.

Brendan Fraser reprises his role as ex-Legionnaire, ex-Spy (so we're told) Rick O'Connell, and it seems as if he signed on just for some dough and garner some noticeability in the pursuit of becoming the next Indy. Gone are the dry wit and imprudent manners; instead we have a guy who's torn apart between playing a hero and a father. Cute Cute Rachel Weisz doesn't reprise her role as Evelyn and instead we've Maria Bello who is more motherly than archaeological-ly. John Hannah does return as Jonathan and elicits a wee bit lesser laughter and guffaws than before. Completing the O'Connel the family is grown-up Alex, played by Luke Ford, quite plastically I must say. Jet Li is the titular Dragon Emperor and is commendable. But all of his dialogues are in Mandarin (subtitled in English) which kinda takes away the menace somewhat. Of course, one can't expect a long-buried Mummy to be well versed in English. But if the Sorceress Zi-Juan - played by Michelle Yeoh - can effortlessly speak English, I don't see why the Emperor can't!

Action-wise, the chases are the same as in Mummy Returns, the bus chase sequence replaced by a 'horse-chariot plus truck' chase sequence with too much of fireworks in the background. There is a long-drawn castle fight set in the Himalayas with, would-you-believe-it, Yetis as the saviors!!! Climactic battle is all-CGI; the only highpoint being Li and Yeoh's sword battle which lasts for too less a time to be awe-inspiring. Rest of the movie is all cliche-ridden and repetitive. And there are bloopers galore! Discussing them would mean putting up unsightly spoiler alerts and hidden text so I'll let them be! Maybe you can tell me some of the wtf! moments of the movie in the comments.

I'd categorize this one as Kitsch [a term that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an existing style]

My Rating:

Plot Outline:

In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick and Alex O'Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin -- a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago.

Download Link

Register (its easy and free) and njoy.

Yep, I have no idea where his front foot is either. It's mummy magic.

Movies are almost synonymous with one type of food; popcorn. Summertime is equally synonymous with one kind of movie; popcorn cinema. This would be the type of movie where you walk in, sit down with an overly large tub of possibly-buttered delight in your lap and shut the brain off. Just watch the action, be wowed by the explosions and chuckle at the one-liners you would only joke about, but never believe you would actually hear someone say on screen. Now it may sound like I'm mocking these flicks, but I'm not at all, we eat these up with both hands every year and this summer is no different. How do you think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made such a ridiculous amount of money? So, tonight I bore witness to another lasting franchise in the candy coated adventure world and it's new arrival, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

The first two movies were helmed by franchise creator Steven Sommers, but this time the reins were handed over to another Universal Studios master-at-arms, Rob Cohen. Rob is no stranger to the multi-sequeled storyline, but usually he's at the front of it instead of coming in during round three. He launched such franchises as The Fast and the Furious, xXx and The Skulls. He also directed one of the more stand out martial arts movies of the early 1990's, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. With all those credits on his rap sheet, you'd figure this project would be akin to giving a professional conductor one of Beethoven's classics, a walk in the park. Yet this stroll down popcorn lane proved to be a more windy road than imagined.

The story takes place many years after the last chapter and Rick and Evie's son, Alex has taken on the family business of digging up and uncovering the most dangerous of mummified enemies. This new foe happens to be an ancient Chinese emperor who once controlled the five elements and tried to take over the world, which seems to be a bit of a habit for these mummies. Once he is reawakened, the ride begins and we are off once again, racing around the continent to try and stop him from becoming completely immortal. The basic premise works and personally I was glad to move the location out of Egypt, since I felt they had played that tune as long as they could. Yet once you move below the basic storyline, all the connecting points seem to fall apart. I'm a huge supporter in the "willing suspension of disbelief", which we all need to fully enjoy any movie, but this suspension was pulled just a few hairs past the limit. So many things take place which are never explained, never set up and sometimes never paid off. Once the momentum really got moving, every other scene was spent trying to figure out how we got there and what was going on. It had a little taste of Wanted, which also jumped absolutely huge logic holes for the sake of making something look cool on screen, but that film, under the insane vision of Timur Bekmambetov, pulled it off much better.

As for casting, back in the day this was going to be the bread and butter of Brendan Fraser's career (who plays our dashing hero and young Indiana Jones homage, Rick O'Connell), but since the first movie I haven't felt that same magic from his performance. Ever since then it has all felt like a shadow or almost a parody of the moments he created in the original. Also, in the first two he starred alongside Rachel Weisz, but she didn't return to the sand and savagery this time and the studios were forced to either write her out or replace her. They chose the latter. In comes Maria Bello as Evie O'Connell, the spunky and adventurous librarian-cum-swashbuckler. I think Maria is a fantastic actress and I was wildly supportive of her turn in A History of Violence, but this was not a good fit for her. Her action scenes felt forced and overly silly, on top of her accent sliding in, out and completely off the British continent. From the original chapters, the only person to bring the exact same level, for better or for worse, was John Hannah, as Evie's charmingly opportunistic brother, Jonathan. New to this series was Michelle Yeoh, an immortal witch hoping to stop the Dragon Emperor, and Jet Li as the Emperor himself. Michelle was fairly strong in her performance, but Jet Li spent most of the movie walking around as an animated Terra Cotta statue, so it's a little hard to criticize any lack of emotion from the part.

It can be argued that acting skills and story structure have nothing to do with popcorn cinema, it is all about the special effects. We are there for the glitz, the glamor and the wonderment of things we have never seen before on screen. Unfortunately this visual extravaganza didn't break down any walls in that realm. The statue effect on Jet Li's character skipped back and forth between impressive and amateurish, while the practical effects and explosions failed to really pop the eyes open of the audience. The one thing standing out amongst the crowd was the Yeti creatures (don't ask how or why they appeared, just let that one go). These imagined visualizations of the abominable snowmen provided not only some much needed freshness to the flick, but some decent comedy as well. Numerous times there was laughter peeling through the audience, but half of it was laughing alongside the movie, while the rest was laughing at it. Big difference, same result: entertainment. As many problems as this does have, I can't say I walked out unamused. The plot holes and logic issues leave the script looking like a well used target down at the local gun range, but the jokes were plentiful and they kept coming until you gave in and laughed.

Recommendation: As I've said before, this is an action movie, so it can only be helped by seeing it on the big screen, but on this occassion I might just suggest waiting for TV distribution and sitting really, really close to the set.

p.s. I was once again reminded about why I choose to go to the Arclight Cinemas as much as possible. Tonight they gave out posters signed by Rob Cohen to people sitting in random seat numbers. Plus, if that wasn't enough of a bonus for the night, Rob Cohen himself was there to introduce the movie. He mentioned that he made the movie for us, the fans, the general public, and not for the critics and bloggers (like myself). He said it's about sheer entrainment, so whether you think it's good or it's bad, if you laugh at it during any point, his job is done. For me the job was done, but it might not have been the job he intended.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Título original: The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor

Gênero: Aventura

Ano: 2008

País: EUA

Duração: 114 minutos

Língua: Inglês

Classificação: 10 anos

Diretor: Rob Cohen

Elenco: Maria Bello, Jet Li, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford, John Hannah

Sinopse: Dessa vez, Rick O´Connell está em viagem à China, acompanhado do filho (já adulto) Alex, quando eles despertam a múmia de Han, o primeiro imperador de Quin. Trata-se de uma entidade que fora amaldiçoada pela bruxa Zijuan, milhares de anos atrás, e agora ameaça transformar o mundo num abismo. À dupla juntam-se também a esposa de Rick, Evelyn, e o irmão dela, Jonathan.

.

.

- MEU IRMÃO É FILHO ÚNICO

Título original: Mio fratello è figlio unico

Gênero: Drama

Ano: 2007

País: França, Itália

Duração: 95 minutos

Língua: Italiano

Classificação: 14 anos

Diretor: Daniele Luchetti

Elenco: Elio Germano , Riccardo Scamarcio , Luca Zingaretti

Sinopse: Os irmãos Accio (Elio Germano) e Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) cresceram numa pequena cidade italiana a partir da década de 60. Opostos politicamente, apaixonam-se pela mesma mulher. O longa acompanha 15 anos dos personagens, por meio das conturbações e reviravoltas da tumultuada história sociopolítica da Itália.

.

.

- NEM POR CIMA DO MEU CADÁVER

Título original: Over Her Dead Body

Gênero: Comédia

Ano: 2008

País: EUA

Duração: 92 minutos

Língua: Inglês

Diretor: Jeff Lowell

Elenco: Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Jason Biggs, Lindsay Sloane

Sinopse: Henry (Paul Rudd) entrou em profunda depressão depois que sua noiva Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) morreu esmagada por uma estátua de gelo no dia de seu casamento. Apesar de não concordar, ele decide se consultar com uma paranormal chamada Ashley (Lake Bell). Após algumas sessões, Henry percebe que está melhor do que imaginava e apaixonado por Ashley. Kate passa a assombrar a paranormal, tentando acabar com o romance que está surgindo.

.

.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Veja mais:

Criança 44

Novo teaser trailer de Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------